I had to let go of my baby

S. S. Rajamouli, the ace director, asserts that the Bahubali animated series, Crown of Blood, was well planned. “When we penned down pre-stories and post-stories of characters in Baahubali and also observed the evolving character arc of each character, we realised that there is a lot more to be shared with the audience from Baahubali,” he says. He revealed that in Western countries, movie branding occurs naturally, however in our country, such branding is lacking. “In India, we are quite content if a picture does well while not extending our fan base. In contrast, in Western countries, these films spread to other media and reach a larger audience,” he says.

However, he admits that they tried to do many things around the Bahubali franchise. “We planned a web series, a VR film, and games around it, but we couldn’t succeed much because it was new for us. Then we realised that we needed to tie up with the right people, but it took us some time,” he informs.

“He was surprised when one Sharath approached them with the idea of doing an animation series on the Prabhas starrer. “I was under the notion that animation was confined to children’s cartoons, but he opened our eyes to a new vision. His idea of animation was on par with Western and Japanese works, and we agreed to his vision,” he informs.

However, he had another difficult task of handing over his baby ‘Bahubali’ to another team. “I didn’t want anything to happen without my knowledge and I wanted to be part of their work. However, I soon realized that they had a strong and clear vision on animated series. Finally, I had to let go of my baby. However, I explained to them about our characters, conflicts and human emotions which we banked on. They are assured to retain the ‘soul’ of Baahubali and deliver an everlasting animated version,” he concludes.

The upcoming animated series will witness Baahubali and Bhalladeva join hands to protect the kingdom against the mysterious forces of the antagonist, Raktdeva.